Phrynosoma orbiculare, the Chihuahua desert horned lizard, occurs on the northern plateau from Chihuahua, Durango, and Nuevo Leon southeast through Morelos, Puebla and Veracruz. P. orbiculare can be distinguished from other horned lizard species by the following: one row of lateral abdominal fringe scales; two short occipital horns; temporal horns extend nearly as far as occipital horns; smooth ventral scales; and very short tail.

About the Species

This specimen (LACM 126543) was collected by J. W. Wright in Santa Cruz, near Pico de Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico. It was made available to the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Wendy Hodges of the Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation grant (DBI-0204459) to Dr. Hodges. Funding for image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of the Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin.